Chipu bow out of Barthes Cup after loss to Namibia
Kenya’s rugby junior team popularly known as Chipu bowed out of the Barthes Cup after Namibia defeated the home team 16-5 at the Nyayo National stadium.
Namibia qualified for the Under-20 Rugby Africa Barthes Cup finals at the expense of the home team.
Chrysander Antonio Botha charges scored a converted try plus three penalties while Curtis Olago charges scored an unconverted try to settle the nerves in the game.
Leading 6-0 at the intervals Namibia’s captain Riaan Grove was the man of the match with 11 points from three penalties and a conversion.
The match was littered with mistakes giving the referee the opportunity to penalise both teams with scrums and lineouts.
Namibia got their first scrum after a turnover from the Kenya attack, but it took only minutes before the hosts reclaimed possession of the ball.
However, Kenyans were caught napping after Emmanuel Opondo won a line out for Namibia in the 15-metre line which was well executed by Raschano Van Rooi who won a penalty that was converted by captain Riaan Grove for a 3-0 lead.
Kenya’s fly-half Tony Oketch had a chance to equalise but missed a drop-kick from the half field.
Namibia continued dominating possession pushing Kenya’s defence behind the 15-metre line earning Namibia a second penalty, but Grove was unable to convert this time around.
Samuel Mwaura missed another penalty and after some minutes Kenya was on the wrong side playing a forward play in their 15-metre line Namibia won the ball to score a drop-kick converted by Grove to make it 6- 0 at half-time.
In the second half, Curtis Olago brought in lock John Aswani for Stanslaus Shikoli.
Chipu’s scrum-half Whilhite Mususi gifted Namibia a simple try with Niel Holtzhausen scoring near the posts and Grove converting to make it 13-0.
Namibia’s captain Riaan Grove added another three points from a dropkick to make it 16-0.
Kenya’s winger David Mwangi got the ball from George Otieno running to the right wing offloading to Joseph Ayiro to score Kenya’s first try, Tony Oketch missing the twos to make it 5 -16.
The visitors contained Kenya’s pressure to the last whistle to make it 16-5 at full time.
COLLATED RESULTS
Placement Semifinals
Uganda 26-19 Cote D’Ivoire
Tunisia 25-20 Zambia
